Interview with the LOTRO Team

Once again I’m scheduling some time to chat with folks from Turbine about the various pieces of LOTRO that we all love, and some that we’re not so pleased about I’m still gathering my questions, but wanted to give folks an opportunity to get their questions in.

I can’t guarantee I’ll get to everything, nor am I 100% sure who I’ll have access to, but if my last interview is any indication they are open to pulling in people necessary to answer the questions.

The actual interview won’t happen until after Thanksgiving, but with vacations and all we wanted to get things somewhat nailed down sooner rather then later.

Current topics on my list so far:

Security concerns

RoI Testing/Rollout including Instance Slip

Content updates

F2P success and returns for players

PvMP Update

Warden class issues

Update 5

For each of these I do have multiple questions, but that’s a general outline. If you’re curious about how I’ve done my interviews or what all I’ve asked, feel free to listen to my previous interviews with Rowan and my most recent one with Rowan, Adam Mersky Graalx2, and Zombie Columbus.

If you have questions or suggestions, reach out to me in some fashion (comment, email, twitter, Google+, etc) by Monday 11/21 at noon Eastern.

Can you ask why Turbine stated quite clearly that solo players would have the ability to get 4/6 of the Draigoch raid set through solo play, and that is being removed with Update 5? Solo and small fellowship players will have no way to get Seals, which will be required for those 4 pieces of Draigoch armor.

So, in short, Turbine is going back on their word to give solo players a route to get 4/6 of the Draigoch gear, albeit with a massive grind. I’d like to know why they are going back on their word.

My computer (and RL) haven’t been cooperating of late so I haven’t done too much on Bullroarer, but this exact thing is of great interest to me as well. I will say that when I opened my transferred Warden on Bullroarer, I did have 9 seals which were a combination of my current 4th marks (drops from normal skirmishes) and Superior 4th Marks.

Time will tell, and there’s still opportunity for them to tweak the loot tables as well.

(Thanks for this opportunity Doc, if the acquisition of the below via 3-man content is addressed in the mean time, please feel free to ignore it entirely. Here is my question:)

With the Echoes of the Dead instances, and more recently with the initial ROI release, and implementation of S4M’s and the Draigoch set, you really opened up some nice gear options for those who favour small fellowship play.

With Update 5, it seems that it will no longer be possible for Small Fellowship players to obtain 4/6 parts of the Draigoch set, or in fact the purple ‘instance set’ (which were nice goals to set ourselves), as they no longer have access to the Seals which replace the S4M’s, even via the new trio of instances.

I think this is a real shame, as I’m not asking for the new ‘raid gear’ set, but access the the sets below, which will mean as a busy father when I do drop into these 6 and 12 man spaces I am at least a little better prepared and geared to be of some use.

You, Scormus, and I are all on the same page In all the chaos this week I must have missed that part about seals, as I assumed since I had them on my transferred character they would be available in the same manner as I had obtained them. If that’s not the case – guess who’s going to be doing some serious skirmish farming between now and update 5?

I just found out about it last night myself, seems this is a “breaking story”, so to speak. Solo and Small-fellowship players are going to get screwed if this doesn’t change prior to going Live.

That said, if the problem is resolved before going Live, can I revise my question? How about “What happened to Comparable Incomparables gear rewards for different playstyles, and can we expect a return to that philosophy in LOTRO?”

They’ve mentioned taking another pass at the rewards to ensure there’s an option for solo players to acquire things they want to leave accessible to that playstyle. Presumably GSoE/ Greater Delvings; I assume the Draigoch set will be on the list.

My question is in the vein of itemization and the effect of cap removal. We’ve already seen the 3-mans from In Their Absence duo’d and wardens and guardians running around with 15K morale. What is going to prevent LOTRO from hitting the sheer magnitude / stupidity of morale / damage that WOW does?

I’ve read that tactical damage had not been properly scaled to level 75. Is this still the case or has it been quietly fixed? If not, can we expect a fix for this or is it not as significant of an issue as was previously thought?

I’ll check with Psychbabble on that one, as I’ll admit I’ve lost track of where that issue stands since it isn’t an issue for the main classes I’m playing these days. Another one that I had meant to ask but left off my list

So, does “RoI Rollout/instance slip” include discussion about the horrendous state of the draigoch raid and when it will be fixed so as to not bug out after running in circles for an hour? Because as I’m sure we all know there are a lot of very frustrated people out there when it comes to this kind of neglect on part of the devs.

I’m curious if the reason the instance finder is same-server only is due to technical difficulties or by design; if it’s by design it seems that, while the finder is superficially similar to WoW’s the design intent might actually be quite different, and I’d like to hear their thoughts on that.

This might go under “F2P success and returns for players”, but I’m interested in their opinions on subscription players who rack up enough TP that they can drop down to Premium with everything they need unlocked (except for new characters.) Is this a concern in terms of future revenue, or is it a net positive? Are they satisfied with the value of subscriptions right now?

yeah, I have a few questions on the instance finder along those lines.

And from my last interview, they said lifetime (and subscription VIPs) aren’t weighing them down at all or causing cash flow problems – which I can actually understand as they’re more committed to the game and as such likely to buy more things.

I would like to ask about conversion rates. What is going to happen to all the medallions I have in Shared Storage? Now that they are bind on account, does that mean they will be lost? What about the other marks, like special marks and so on. Which should I be turning in now for marks and which should I save at all costs because I will get more bang for the conversion buck? Exact conversion rates are really necessary if I am to have any chance of being happy with how they are changing this aspect. Otherwise, I will feel ripped off, even if they claim I am going to make out better. For example, will all marks gained be the same or will harder to get marks now be turned into seals or whatever? Will Moria medallions be equal to Dol Guldur ones and then the price of, say scrolls be the same everywhere, meaning the high level dol guldur medallions might get me more now than if I wait and then they are equal to everything else and a scroll of empowerment is more expensive because moria medallions are easy to get for a 75 toon? This is the scariest part of the update…please, PLEASE ask them if they have thought about that impact (because in the past, they haven’t always realized it until too late) and if they will provide answers in the near future so we can plan (and those on Bullroarer don’t rip us off on the AH or in GLFF or just through the virtue of being able to take. Sneak peek). A the very least, if you or someone industrious would do research, players like me would love to read it!

Hmm, so I’m honestly not sure how this will work but it is a VERY valid question. Currently on Bullroarer, only scaling instance/skirmish marks are changing. All of the Moria, Lorien, Mirkwood, and OD marks (the non-scaling stuff) is unchanged and still sitting in my vaults.

Also, there are ways to convert between seals and medallions, but currently no way to upgrade marks to either one of those.

I’m still working out how to get all these, but seals seem a bit more known with medallions being a bit more hidden on the actual accrual mechanics.

I’m curious about the removal of the dailies from skirmishes. I’ve seen reasoning on the forum that it has to do with the bonuses from the instance finder but the dailies have been removed completely even if you enter them from the instance join.

What are the kinds of things the itemization team considers when determine the prices of barter items? ; Do they start with a set length of time they want us to spend obtaining the set and work backwards or what? What’s the process? ; Why the seeming push to grind old content to buy the new gear instead of doing the new content to acquire the new teal raid set?

Something I’m interested in is the rationale behind putting 1st age legendary symbols in the upcoming raid. doesn’t giving these away so early in the expansion limit your options for making a later raid with rewarding loot? or do they have other ideas about future weapon upgrades?

The following questions are based on the idea that the next expansion will be planned for end of 2012 but perhaps worth clarifying first).

– Do they have any plans to release a new region before their next expansion?

– Do they still plan to continue scaling old instances, particularly In Their Absence cluster and if so are we likely to see this happen prior to the next expansion or is the idea of scaled instances ‘on the back burner’ for now? (We haven’t seen any new scaled instances since their original implementation when F2P was released)

– When is Update 6 scheduled for?

– Do they have plans to continue to offer the opportunity to earn new horses via gameplay or only as store exclusives? (no mounts are available via the new rep factions while new mounts are being promoted as store exclusives, so is this a sign of things to come?)